As atomics moves ahead, such radiotherapy as Cobalt-60, linear accelerators and electron beams has been one of major means to cancer therapy. However, conventional photon or electron therapy has been undergone physical restrictions of radioactive rays; for example, many normal tissues on a beam path will be damaged as tumor cells are destroyed. On the other hand, sensitivity of tumor cells to the radioactive rays differs greatly, so in most cases, conventional radiotherapy falls short of treatment effectiveness on radioresistant malignant tumors (such as glioblastoma multiforme and melanoma).
For the purpose of reducing radiation damage to the normal tissue surrounding a tumor site, target therapy in chemotherapy has been employed in the radiotherapy. While for high-radioresistant tumor cells, radiation sources with high RBE (relative biological effectiveness) including such as proton, heavy particle and neutron capture therapy have also developed. Among them, the neutron capture therapy combines the target therapy with the RBE, such as the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). By virtue of specific grouping of boronated pharmaceuticals in the tumor cells and precise neutron beam regulation, BNCT is provided as a better cancer therapy choice than conventional radiotherapy.
In the accelerator-based boron neutron capture therapy, the accelerator-based boron neutron capture therapy accelerates proton beams using an accelerator. The proton beam is accelerated to the energy high enough to overcome Coulomb repulsive force of atomic nucleus of the target, and then has a nuclear reaction with the target to generate neutrons. Therefore, in the process of neutron generation, the target will be irradiated by accelerated proton beams in a very high energy level, and the temperature of target will rise significantly, so the working lifetime of the target will be effected.
Therefore, it is really necessary to provide a new technical solution so as to solve the foregoing problem.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.